Little Pink Book
by LTP-girl
Summary: For their own amusement, Daria and Jane decide to play mind games with Mr. DeMartino with the intention of placing bets on how long he can maintain his sanity. Meanwhile, Mr. DeMartino is intrigued by a mysterious new student in his History class.


**A/N: I'm just playing with some ideas hear. Let me know what you think.**

Disclaimer: I do not own _Daria_ and its characters.

Lawndale High, Tuesday, 2:45 pm

"Who can tell me the EVENTS leading up to the TEAPOT DOME Scandal?" Anthony wanted to know.

The classroom remained silent.

He caught his best student Daria's smug smile, knowing full well that she knew the answer. He proceeded to scan the room, his eyes seething with a cold glare. "Ah Britney, how about you?"

Britney's bright expression perked up. "Um . . ." She twirled a finger around one of her blonde pigtails as she tried to think, her dull eyes vacant. "Mick Jaggar and his band had a problem when there weren't any teapots on their tour in America, because they're English and drink a lot of tea."

"STOP right there!" The frustrated teacher roared. "It seems to me, Britney, that your mutha was a diehard rock fan when she was pregnant with you, and it has SOMEHOW scrambled your BRAINS!"

He shuddered. Not only was Brittney on his list of failing students, but as embarrassing as it was for him to admit, she reminded him of some of the underage girls he used to pick up and spill drinks down when he was in college.

An obvious grin spread across Kevin's face. "Cool, can rock music really do that that Mr. D?"

Anthony ignored Kevin's moronic enquiry and scanned the room once more. His piercing gaze landed upon a mousy haired girl with braces sitting in the second back row. "Ms. Brookston? Do you know what happened in the Teapot Dome Scandal?"

Delilah Brookston was a seemingly invisible student at Lawndale High. Shy, quiet, and highly timid in his presence, Anthony had hardly noticed her until he had, to his surprise, given her an A on a paper about World War II she had submitted three weeks earlier, the commencement of the school year. He instantly recognized her last name, as well as her distinct facial features, high cheekbones and a dimpled chin, recalling having taught her older sister in the past.

He heard whispering and sniggering from Daria and her friend Jane's direction.

"Is there ANYTHING you want to SHARE with the rest of the CLASS, Daria? Ms. LANE?"

"No Mr. DeMartino," Daria replied sardonically.

He turned his attention back to Delilah, who seemed flustered by his sudden interest in her.

Delilah stuttered before answering. "A Senate investigation carried out in 1923, followed by subsequent testimonies in court trials, determined that the Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, had coerced the Secretary of the Navy, Edward Denby, to transfer government oil reserves from Elk Hills and Tea Pot Dome to the Department of the Interior. Fall then leased these oil reserves to private oil producers, E. L. Doheny and Harry Sinclair. These leases were carried out without any competitive bidding. Fall was bought off for assisting in these transfers, a hundred-thousand dollars from Doheny for Elk Hills, and three-hundred thousand from Sinclair for the Tea Pot Dome. This happened under the administration of Warren W. Harding."

"Well done Ms. Brookston," he praised her, pleased to find how unlike her brain-dead and disengaged sister she was. Moreover, he found it refreshing that someone other than Daria Morgendorffer and Jodie Landon had read the chapter he had assigned. "Thank you for your detailed and INSIGHTFUL answer."

He remembered one incident involving her sister that had stuck with him over the years. Georgia Brookston had staggered into his class drunk with a half empty bottle of bourbon in her pocket one eventful morning, and vomited all over the pile of essay papers sitting on his desk.

"That bitch stole your act," Jane fumed jokingly to Daria, referring to Delilah's impressive knowledge of the Tea Pot Dome Scandal.

"At least she's not another gasbag like Kevin or Brittney," Daria responded. "I think she's an asset. She seems to put Mr. DeMartino in a relatively good mood."

The school bell rang, ending another of his grueling history classes. Students couldn't have risen from their seats any faster.

"Don't FORGET, you have a test on THURSDAY. Anything below a D, and you'll have ME to answer to!"

He approached Daria and Jane on their way out.

"Ladies, may I have a QUICK word with you?"

Daria exchanged a disturbed glance with Jane, as they approached the side of his desk.

"Empty your pockets, NOW!" Anthony ordered.

As reluctant as they were to do as he asked, Daria and Jane jumped in response to his outburst.

"What is this about?" Daria wanted to know.

"I don't need to EXPLAIN myself to the two of you. I'm the TEACHER hear," he stated. "Now, turn your pockets inside out, or I will do it myself!"

Jane was the first to breakdown. She reached into the pocket of her grey khaki shorts and removed a small tape recorder, then placed it on his desk.

"Ah, just as I SUSPECTED," Anthony declared complacently. "Recording CLASSES is against the rules, you KNOW that. It's a flagrant VIOLATION of both student and staff PRIVACY. Your explanation had better be GOOD, Ms. Lane."

"I – it's for a science project," Jane explained. "Ms. Barch wanted us to test the sound waves of loud noise within a confined space, such as those sound waves of a teacher shouting in anger in a classroom."

"Oh, I see. I wonder what Ms. Li would have to say about this."

"Mr. DeMartino, do you really want Ms. Li to get involved?" Daria enquired. "I mean, what we've recorded of you isn't very flattering. If Ms. Li was to listen to the tape, she'd have all the more reason to fire you. Shouting at students, banging your head against the blackboard. That sort of behavior from a teacher warrants a brief trip to the insane asylum in Ms. Li's book."

Anthony grumbled under his breath. Daria had him there.

"Fair point, Daria." He suddenly noticed Angela Li patrolling the corridors of the school, and realized that she'd become suspicious if she saw him talking to students after class. He waved his hands at Daria and Jane, signaling that it was time for them to leave. "Go on, get out of my sight. We'll pick this up another time."

The two students dawdled out of classroom, feeling their teacher's pensive gaze follow them all the way up the corridor to their lockers.

Anthony played the recorder back to listen to what Daria and Jane had recorded on the tape. He listened to the discussion he had just had with Kevin Thompson.

"_Kevin, I want you to give me an example of a case of bribery made by a world leader."_

_Kevin laughed nervously. "Um, 007." _

_Anthony grumbled. "NO KEVIN, that's wrong!" He slammed his fists on the service of Kevin's desk. "In answer to the BRAINLESS question you asked me YESTERDAY, I think you'll find that there is a very good reason for there not being any Bond movies on the curriculum." Anthony stormed to the front of the class. _

"_Too bad for the Judi Dench fan-boys among the football team," Jane chided._

"_Any more stupid ANSWERS from this class, and I'll CANCEL the fieldtrip to the J. Edgar HOOVER Museum!"_

"_Damnit, and I was so looking forward to seeing a man in a dress," Daria muttered under her breath. _

Anthony felt a heavy weight in the pit of his stomach. _My God, I don't really sound like that do I? _He was surprised to find how much he had turned into his grandfather.

He opened the top drawer of his desk and dropped the tape recorder next to his empty hipflask and packet of Marlboro Reds.

He set about cleaning up the mess of candy wrappers and paper airplanes discarded by students during class time, another chore teachers were assigned by Ms. Li on top of their already busy schedules. Due to recent budget cuts, Lawndale High could no longer afford cleaners.

He bent down on his hands and knees, scooping up garbage from the floor, placing it in a small waist basket. There was a lot today. Empty chip packets, banana peels, the latest issue of _Waif_, along with soggy bits of paper used to make spit balls.

_DISGUSTING! _

At least he had scored a half packet of Jujyfruits.

Anthony inspected the room once more before picking himself back up off the floor. It was then that something had caught his eye. His _good_ eye at that.

He noticed what appeared to be a small pink leather bound book sitting on a desk toward the back row.

Some dumb girl had left her notebook behind, how was she going to do her homework tonight? But then again, who was he kidding. There were _very few_ students at Lawndale who actually did their homework.

He approached the desk and took the pink book in his hand without a second thought. It was a diary, from what he could tell, too small to keep History notes in.

He realized that it was the desk that Delilah Brookston had been sitting at.

He chuckled to himself.

_If there's any girl who keeps a diary these days, it would be her. _

A knock at the door had broken his thoughts, and he scrambled to hide the diary behind his back, realizing that he was no longer alone.

"Mr. DeMartino?"

He turned to face the person who was speaking to him.

"Yes Ms. Brookston, did you forget something?"

"Yes, I think so," her voice was quivering. She entered the room and approached the desk she had been sitting at during History class.

He watched as she briefly searched her desk, and noted that whatever it was she was looking for wasn't there.

"Oh, well it's not hear. I must have misplaced it someplace else. Thanks anyways Mr. DeMartino."

She then hurried out of the room, his steady gaze following her.

He pulled the diary he had hidden in front of him, rubbing its hard surface with his hand.

It had been a long time since he had done anything sneaky like this. What kind of calculating jerk was he, coveting a schoolgirl's diary?

He had reached this far without being caught. Dare he read what was inside?


End file.
